In an ordinary fly shuttle loom, shuttle boxes are provided at each end with binders, normally leatherlined, to decelerate the shuttle on entering the box. In the ordinary loom this binder is a pivoted, rigid element which is under spring tension. Because of the relatively low friction on the shuttle the picker stick can overshoot, both on the forward movement of the shuttle and on the movement of the picker stick from an incoming shuttle. This normally requires a bumper on the loom and check straps for each picker stick. The relatively low friction also results in more noise in the shuttle box and greater transmission of vibrations to the loom frame through the rigid, pivoted binder.
An elastomer binder has been described in the British Pat. No. 721,546. The elastomer is provided with slanted, oblong holes so that is is compressible from front to back. In most of the description the compressible elastomer is mounted on a rigid backplate, which may be pivoted, in other words, of the same design as has been referred to above in general for looms. This portion of the patent, as will appear below, is not pertinent to the present invention. However, on page 2, in the paragraph beginning on line 31, there is a brief mention of an alternate structure in which the binder is wholly of resilient material and may be fixed. The patent makes it very clear that the braking force which decelerates the shuttle results from compression of the elastomer, made possible by the numerous slanted, oblong holes.
As far as noise is concerned, in the patent of Stahl and Cudworth, U.S. Pat. No. 3,868,975, Mar. 4, 1975, and assigned to the assignee of the present application, there is described and claimed reduction of noise in fly shuttle looms by lining various elements of the shuttle boxes and other portions of the loom with elastomers, which reduce noise and, what is sometimes more important, reduce transmission of vibrations to the loom frame, which resonates. This noise reduction is of increasing importance because of more and more stringent noise pollution legislation, which in some locations makes ordinary fly shuttle looms legally unacceptable. The Stahl and Cudworth patent does not change the nature of the conventional binder except by elastomer lining to reduce noise and transmission of vibrations to the loom frame.